Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Network's Healing Circle. Call for May 5th, 2025. My name is Jeremy Duke and I'm glad you're here. I'm looking forward to spending this time together to see how we can maybe shift our perspective just a bit to allow ourselves a broader perspective, maybe one that allows us to have greater understanding for ourselves and for others in our lives. I'd like to talk about connections tonight, and first, I'd like to read a poem by John Dunn, an English poet. This is from the early 17th century. No man is an island and tire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the Maine. If a Claude be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thy friends or thy own were any man's. Death diminishes me because I'm involved in mankind and therefore never sent to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for the, this poem really speaks to a depth of connection that most of us maybe can consider as an idea, but it's much harder to experience that kind of connection.

(01:34):
In fact, a lot of us, I know myself included, sometimes feel like we're so separate from everyone else or as if we're on our own, as if we are an island. When if we step back and take a look at it, we can see all the ways that that's not the case. Part of our human nature is to have connections. We rely on so many people, so many elements, so many inputs, so many connections. To survive and to thrive. We need the sun to make vitamin D and set our circadian rhythm and to provide energy for plants. We need the earth itself to stand on, to provide the soil, to grow the plants that we and other animals eat. We need the wind to spread seeds and pollen for plant life and to grow new life. We need water that makes up two thirds of our bodies just as it makes up two thirds of the earth.

(02:40):
We need life giving bacteria that exists everywhere, that when in balance create health in everything from the soil to our digestive tract. So this is why it's recommended. We eat fiber and probiotic foods such as yogurt. These bacteria and the other creatures in our microbiome outnumber our human cells 10 to one. They're absolutely essential for our survival. We need people in our lives. Our families were instrumental in giving us an opportunity for life, and we often carry their strengths and weaknesses across our entire lives. We need friends, people that we can vibe with and have camaraderie with to create that joie de vive, that enjoyment of life together, that we need the teachers and coaches and mentors who can pass on our knowledge and skills and bring out the best in us. We even need people that come across as enemies or adversaries, people that challenge us, that helps point out our weak spots and show us where we need to grow economically. We're all very interconnected. I think some awareness has come through with recent news in terms of tariffs and other things going on. There's an essay from the 1950s called Eye Pencil that talks about how no one person on earth can make even a simple pencil by themselves. It requires inputs from all over the world, wood graphite to make the lead rubber lacquer, resin brass. Not to mention all the machinery and all the knowledge that it took to obtain those pieces and transport them and the creativity it took to bring them together.

(04:56):
Think about how many people were involved in every meal you've ever eaten. Not just who cooked it, but the farmer, the veterinarian, the harvester, the trucker, the people who ran the processing facilities, the people who made the fertilizer, people who grew and harvested spices and far away places. Ancestors who through generations of trial and error and perseverance, created the methods used to grow the food scientists, all the strains of plants and species of animals, all the way to the underground networks of microrisal, fungi that connect plant life and all the fields and forests, connections everywhere. If only we stop to look and consider it. So I don't know if any of you enjoy a good cup of coffee. I personally love a morning cup of coffee, especially at sunrise. So I asked AI to make an essay about coffee in the style of eye pencil, and I hope you enjoy this. I think it did a great job.

(06:18):
I coffee. I am a cup of coffee. Humble, warm aromatic. You cradle me in your hands each morning without a second thought yet. I am a miracle of collaboration. One. No single person on earth could create a loan. I began as a seed more precisely a cherry grown high on a hillside in Columbia, or was it Ethiopia, Brazil. Perhaps I'm a blend. The trees that bore me were planted years ago by hands weathered from sun and labor. Their caretakers knew the rains and the soil as intimately as their own families, but they did not build the roads that brought in fertilizer. They did not invent pruning shears nor mine. The metal that became the blades once ripe, I was picked perhaps by hand, perhaps by a machine. I passed through processing where workers removed my fruity flesh to reveal the green bean inside. I was then washed, dried, sorted, and bagged At each stage.

(07:27):
Humans with skill and patience worked beside machines made of steel and plastic machines whose existence required engineers, miners, designers, and logistics experts spanning continents. Then came the voyage ships crossing oceans captained by crews who may never have tasted me. Containers packed tight with millions of my kind. I was bought and sold, contracted and hedged through systems of finance as complex as any jungle. Eventually I found my way to a rooster, perhaps in Seattle or maybe in Berlin, Melbourne or Nairobi. Therein carefully controlled heat. I was transformed. My green grassy flavor gave way to the rich brown oils and cents. You know, the person who roasted me may have studied for years mastering the chemical ballet of time, temperature, and airflow, and then grinding, not by hand perhaps, but by a bird grinder, engineered to micron, precision brewed with water that traveled through pipes, laid by utility workers, filtered by municipal systems, heated by electricity, drawn from coal, wind, gas, or sun.

(08:50):
If you added sugar, that's another odyssey. Fields of cane or beets, refineries, plants, transport networks, cream, a whole other world. Dairy farms, pasteurization tanks, and cold chain logistics. Even the mug in which I sit has its tail. Clay mined, shaped, fired in a kiln in a thousand degrees, glazed, branded, boxed, and shipped. I am coffee, yes, but I'm also a symphony of labor, innovation and trust. I exist because countless strangers across borders and languages cooperated without ever needing to meet. Not by command, but by choice. So next time you sip, remember, I'm not just a drink. I am the story of civilization in a cup.

(09:50):
And thank you for listening to that. Let's slow down a bit. Let's engage a practice that will allow us to feel some of our own connections in a little different way. And start with just relaxing the body as much as you can, and then relaxing it again even further. Looking for a sense of comfort in your own body, gently bringing your attention to the breath, feeling the way the breath enters the nostrils on the end breath and leaves the body on the out breath. How does it feel at the rim of the nose? Inside the nose, let your awareness spread into the sinuses, the way the air flows through the sinuses on the in breath, bringing air through the rim of the nose, through the nose itself, the sinuses and into the throat.

(11:19):
And finally feeling the expansion and contraction of the lungs and the diaphragm. Feeling that connection all the way from the tip of the nose, deep into the body, into the lungs. This principle in Chinese is connecting the inside and the outside. Now swish the saliva around your mouth. Let it roll over your tongue from cheek to cheek. Feel the way your cheeks and your lips pucker as you swish. And then swallow that saliva and feel the saliva travel all the way down the throat deep into the body. Feel that connection between the tongue and the throat and the belly.

(12:31):
Now feel into your sit bones, resting on your chair. Feel the support of the chair beneath you and how the chair is supported by the floor, and the floor is supported by the earth beneath it. Feel that connection between the sit bones and the earth. Deep below you. Feel your feet resting on the floor or the floorboards. Feel that connection. Feel around the heel, the edge of the foot, the end step and the toes all supported by the floor and just supported by the earth beneath it. Feel the depth of the earth below you. How many miles there is of Mother Earth supporting you at all times.

(13:47):
Now we'll engage what's called the Sai Ong, the three division spirit practice. This will be a different way to sense our connections, and we'll keep it simple. There's no right way or wrong way to do this. So whatever comes to mind, whatever feelings you have as you practice this, it's all correct. It's all right for you. So as you remind yourself of that support beneath your sit bones, that strong support beneath your feet, the connection of the inside and the outside through the breath center, your awareness on your heart space. If you want, you can bring your hands up palm to palm in a prayer position in front of your heart. If that takes away from feeling into your heart space, you can leave your hands on your lap, whenever's comfortable for you.

(15:07):
Breathing into that heart space, feeling into a calmness there, an openness, a sense of energy, a sense of potential in the heart space, maybe even a sense of lightness or of light itself, as if there were a candle or a bulb, the heart bringing warmth and light. And with each breath, let that sense of energy and a light grow becoming a bit warmer and a bit brighter, and with a sense of that light and love in the heart. Think about heaven above you and everything. Heaven offers. All the blessings of the sun, of the moon, of the wind, of the clouds that bring the rain, the beautiful blue skies or the beautiful sparkling night skies. Send love to heaven, send love and gratitude for all the blessings that heaven brings us.

(17:11):
Feel a sense of ease and naturalness as though this is as natural for you as it is for a bird to sing in the morning. This is just something we as humans are capable of and enjoy doing, sending that love to the heavens, knowing that heaven is receiving it, and then reverse it. Feel the love coming from heaven. Feel as though heaven is loving you back. Feel though it is pouring down onto you, onto and through your head, penetrating deep into the body, reaching the hard space, washing down the outside of your body, mutual giving and receiving of love with heaven.

(18:16):
And then let that image go and send love to the earth beneath you. Love and gratitude to the earth for constantly supporting us, for constantly being the ground of creation, new life around us, especially here in the spring, coming in the fuller and fuller glory every day. Gratitude for the food we grow that comes from the earth, from the flowers that we see, from the natural beauty of rolling hills and mountains, streams, rivers, and the ocean on the coast. Sending love as deeply and broadly as you can into earth and then reverse it. Feel love emanating from the earth in reciprocity and gratitude for our love.

(19:30):
Feel as though earth is showering you with love and blessings. The energy of which rises up through the feet and also through the sit bones and the pelvic floor. Our connection points with the earth rising up the spine, reaching the heart center. And then as we let this image go, now we send love to humanity, all the humanity we know, all the humanity. We don't know all the humanity that need love, which is every single human on earth, sending it out in all directions, doing so without judgment. It doesn't matter what people are out there, what they've done, or what they've done to us. We can continue to send that love from the peaceful, balanced center of our heart space and then reverse it and feel love coming in from the rest of humanity, from all directions, from every heart center person on earth connecting with you in this moment, offering love and return and reciprocity and in gratitude for everything you have just offered yourself to take it in.

(21:37):
Allow that sense of an inner smile to creep across your heart and your face. Take a deep breath and let those thoughts and images go. And this practice closes Sun Saha Igon. The three divisions unite in aic love. One of my teachers says that many times people will put out the positive, but they still bring in the negative. Here in this practice, we've let the good shine out while also letting the good shine in feeling our connections in a positive way is possible. So this is a practice if you want, you can return to when you want to feel the connections to the world around you, to the people around you.

(22:57):
And I certainly hope you remember that even though yes, there will be times where we feel like an island or where we feel so alone, so disconnected, we can know that that too is a passing thought. A passing emotion like a cloud that covers the sun before the wind blows it away and allows the sun to shine through again. So I want to thank you one more time for connecting with me on this call. And to everyone else listening, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your willingness to listen to this perspective. I hope can carry a piece of it forward with you in your life. These recordings are available to you on the Networks website, and I'm so grateful to the networks team, Rosa, Jess, and Tracy, and everyone else who makes these possible, makes the space for us to connect in this way. And yeah, take good care of yourselves. All right, until we meet again. Thank you everyone. Shehe.